Editorial: State ethics overhaul must be done right

Wednesday

Sep 24, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 24, 2008 at 8:47 PM

If you didn't know better, the Capitol on Monday might have seemed some kind of alternate universe. Here were the state’s staunchest advocates for ridding Illinois politics of corruption applauding the Illinois Senate for removing a series of tough new ethics rules from a bill and voting a much more limited measure into law.

If you didn't know better, the Capitol on Monday might have seemed some kind of alternate universe.

Here were the state’s staunchest advocates for ridding Illinois politics of corruption applauding the Illinois Senate for removing a series of tough new ethics rules from a bill and voting a much more limited measure into law.

Count us among those voicing approval for the Senate action, which makes it illegal for those holding state contracts of $50,000 or more to contribute to the political campaigns of the state official who controls those contracts. What the Senate did on Monday with its 55-0 vote to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s amendatory veto — in which the governor “improved” the bill by adding new measures — did not weaken House Bill 824. Rather, it ensured that a law not vulnerable to being overturned in a court challenge went into Illinois’ statutes.

But if Tuesday’s action by the Senate is any indication, Illinois politics could be in for a much more extensive ethics overhaul in short order. Following its rejection of Blagojevich’s additions to HB 824 on Monday, the Senate on Tuesday approved them in the form of a new bill.

After beating the drum for years demanding that Illinois adopt laws to clean up a system that all but ensured “pay-to-play” politics would govern state contracting, we’re not about to urge the General Assembly to drag its feet now that one important reform is on the books. But we do think the House and Senate need to proceed carefully in getting the reforms suggested by Blagojevich into law.

Those reforms include new rules for how legislators vote on pay raises, a ban on lawmakers working in most other government jobs and more disclosure of lobbying by lawmakers and their spouses.

Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, cautioned patience when she testified about the new bill before the Senate Executive Committee. Like many others, she believes some of Blagojevich’s measures — like banning those who hold state contracts from contributing even to office holders who don’t control their contracts — may invite a constitutional challenge if passed as currently written.

In a way, it’s comical that a state that took years to adopt the generous limit defined in HB 824 now seems in a crazed rush to pass all kinds of new limits. And we should point out here that the $50,000 rule imposed by that bill will mean a change in operation only for Blagojevich. The state’s other constitutional officers all voluntarily agreed to stop accepting donations from their contract holders in 2005 — at about the same time that what became HB 824 began to take shape.

“Why not go the next step? Don’t vote this down just because Blagojevich thought of it,” said Sen. Rickey Hendon, D-Chicago, as the Senate sent its bill — SB 780 — to the House.

We agree there — the House should not reject any bill simply to spite the governor. (In fact, that was the governor’s excuse for rewriting the original bill and setting off this whole firestorm.)
But doing it right, in this case, is more important than doing it speedily. If Monday’s Senate action truly was the start of an ethics reform movement, then the extensive vetting and negotiating process that brought HB 824 into law must be the model.